Heating Plant Revision Secures ANC Nod

The latest design proposal deviates further from the architecture of the 1948 building, located at 29th and K streets NW.

By Grace Bird

Current Staff Writer

Plans to
redevelop the long-vacant West Heating Plant inched forward last
Wednesday, as the fourth iteration of designs for the proposed 110-foot
luxury condo building won support from Advisory Neighborhood Commission
2E (Georgetown, Burleith).

Opened in 1948 and shuttered half a
century later, the art deco industrial building at 29th and K streets NW
has drawn divided opinions: Neighbors generally see it as an unsightly
stain on the otherwise upscale Georgetown neighborhood, while some
preservationists have argued that it has historic significance.

In
May, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved a proposal that would
essentially demolish the historic plant to construct a new 10-story,
60-unit Four Seasons Residences building and an adjacent public park.
The project would retain the heating plant’s approximate dimensions, its
29th Street facade, the structure of its existing windows and a stone
wall at the perimeter of the property.

Despite their support for
these general plans in May, Fine Arts Commission members requested
bolder architecture that replicated the old heating plant in a less
literal way. The project team presented these revisions at ANC 2E’s
Sept. 6 meeting, in advance of a Sept. 20 review by the Commission of
Fine Arts. ANC 2E has also supported past iterations of the project.

The
building’s new design is indeed “less suburban” — as requested by the
Commission of Fine Arts — drawing more clearly from its industrial past.
The proposed east facade has been altered to add an exterior steel
frame and large metal balconies, contrasting with its sweeping glass
walls, while the condo’s north side is decorated with vertical rows of
rusted steel, offset with sweeping window panels. In all, updated
designs use a more diverse array of materials in an effort to better
straddle the intersection of history and modernity.

The planned
1-acre public park, which would sit on top of the building’s 80-space
parking garage on the property’s former coal yard, also saw design
revisions after May’s Fine Arts critiques.

The green space, whose
construction and maintenance will be funded by the condo building,
echoes the industrial plant through an “unexpected combination” of
design features, landscaper Laurie Olin of OLIN Studio
said at last week’s meeting. These include metal water troughs of
different heights, the use of steel, a conveyer belt and several metal
benches, contrasted with sprawling lawns and flowering plants.

“Turns
out, they’re the same pieces that we had in the previous scheme — it’s
just the formal expression now speaks more to the recent history of it
as an industrial site,” Olin said. “It is actually much more integrated
with the architecture of the building.”

The project has been
moving slowly toward construction approval. The Levy Group acquired the
vacant heating plant from the federal government in 2013, and enlisted
famed architect David Adjaye to reimagine the
industrial site as a high-end residential property. The project has
faced numerous design iterations amid conflicting opinions about how to
respect a hulking yet historic industrial building — and further hurdles
remain.

The West Heating Plant project has two upcoming
appointments: with the Fine Arts Commission on Sept. 20 and the D.C.
Historic Preservation Review Board on Nov. 2. The latter hearing will
include consideration of a landmark application filed by the DC
Preservation League.

Early next year, the project team moves on
to the Mayor’s Agent for Historic Preservation, who can allow demolition
of historic buildings to accommodate a project of “special merit”; and
the Zoning Commission, which will review the project’s size, scale,
public benefits and traffic impact as part of a planned unit
development.

Levy said the project would break ground in 18 to 24
months, but declined to provide an opening date. “My crystal ball is
not clear about that yet,” Levy said.

In an interview, Ward 2 D.C. Council member Jack Evans said he expects the development to revamp a dilapidated site.

“My
concern is that it’s just taken way too long,” Evans said, which he
attributed to a somewhat misguided squabble over the plant’s historic
status. “Frankly that’s not in my view — it’s very unsightly; a somewhat
out of place building for Georgetown.”

ANC 2E chair Joe Gibbons
is also looking forward to the project’s completion, saying that the
“bold interpretation” reflected in the proposed designs pays homage to
Georgetown’s industrial past while looking toward the future.

“We want this project to get started, for people to be walking around, for people to be utilizing it,” he said.